Insurance and Risk Management

As insurance regulation continues to grow in complexity, you need a legal team that is able to anticipate possible insurance-related issues in all applicable jurisdictions internationally. The Insurance and Risk Management Practice meets clients’ needs by focusing on insurance-related counseling, transactions, corporate and regulatory work, and insurance-related litigation.

Our clients include:

• Insurance agencies, brokerages and other intermediaries
• Insurance premium finance companies
• Underwriting managers and managing general agencies
• Third party administrators
• Alternative market ventures (including captive insurance companies, Risk Retention Act of 1986 companies, and risk pooling associations)
• Financial organizations that provide services directly to the insurance industry, including:
  • Investment bankers
  • Private equity funds
  • Derivatives dealers and investment advisers

By staying in step with industry developments, the practice has the ability to meet our clients’ current and future needs in the following areas:

Litigation and Counseling

• Coverage Opinions: 
  • We have extensive experience in handling large catastrophe claims—air crashes, floods and earthquakes—as well as some of the related claims that arise from these incidents.
  • We address coverage in novel legal and factual situations, such as the claims for “sue and labor” that were made by a number of large U.S. companies seeking reimbursement for their Y2K prevention programs, or claims related to 9/11.
  • We handle losses that require large and complex fact investigation and cooperation with law enforcement.
• Litigation Defense:
  • The firm has been appointed as defense counsel for major Fortune 500 clients in matters ranging from personal injury to commercial contract claims to directors and officers liability.
• Industry Litigation: 
  • We have litigated a wide variety of insurance industry matters involving disputes between claims managers and insurers, brokers and underwriters, and primary and excess layer insurers and all other types of litigation in which the insurance company is involved in the litigation in a role other than as insurer.
  • Our experience gives our attorneys the ability to “think laterally” to assess disputes in their wider context in the industry and to bring more effective litigation and settlement strategies to the table as a result.
• Reinsurance Litigation:
  • We have represented both ceding and assuming reinsurers in a wide range of disputes on business written in the U.S., London and Bermuda markets. 

Risk Management Services

• Risk and Insurance Assessment:
  • We work with both our clients’ management and with their insurance brokers to assess the areas of liability unique to their businesses, both with their current and proposed policy language.
  • We work with in-house risk management departments to develop procedures and guidelines that reduce the risk of litigation exposure.
• Litigation Management:
  • Major national and global companies face a continuous flow of small- to mid-size litigation as part of their normal operations. Our clients have given us management of their litigation portfolios, allowing us to address these issues and reduce their costs.
  • We maintain our clients’ insurance policies and review every litigation to determine whether insurance is available. Our insurance coverage gives us the ability to deal effectively with the insurer in cases where coverage is doubtful or even initially denied by the insurer; our experience in defending claims at the direction of insurers allows us to ensure that the claims are defended within the insurer’s guidelines.
  • We develop a library of knowledge about the client’s policies, structure, operations, key players, etc., so that we can act as a clearinghouse for all information provided in the course of discovery.
  • We generate periodic “bordereaus” that list in chart form all pertinent details of each of the client’s cases, along with a separate report that provides a more detailed narrative synopsis of each claim, allowing quick, up-to-date and comprehensive review of the client’s litigation posture at any time.
  • We have developed a solid network of local counsel around the country whom we can rely upon to handle cases effectively and efficiently.

Anti-Fraud

• Fraud Detection and Prevention:  Our attorneys include former federal and state prosecutors, and two former members of the NYPD.  Because of their combined experience and contacts in law enforcement and private investigations, we are able to offer our clients Fraud Detection and Prevention services.
  • We coordinate all efforts with ultimate recovery strategies in mind and frequently work with the same small teams of forensic accountants and investigators, so we can efficiently address the fraud issues that are common to all corporations. 
  • We counsel insurers on appropriate claims handling practices, investigations and litigation options dealing with organized, systemic fraud schemes. 
  • We have represented major insurers in successful RICO and fraud actions against doctors, clinics, attorneys and others involved in systemic claims fraud schemes in jurisdictions across the country. Similarly, we have also defended major insurers in various lawsuits challenging their claims handling practices, investigations and litigation techniques.
  • We regularly interface on behalf of our clients with local, state and federal law enforcement and regulatory bodies across the country.

Transactional, Corporate and Regulatory

Combining significant depth and breadth of knowledge in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance and with substantial experience in the insurance regulatory field, the Insurance and Risk Management Practice represents insurance and reinsurance companies in a wide variety of general corporate matters, including:

• Formation and admission of new domestic and off-shore insurance companies
• Capitalization and financing of new or existing insurance companies, through commercial lenders and through public and private capital markets
• Mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and other corporate transactions involving insurance companies and other insurance entities, including state insurance holding company act compliance
• Structuring and restructuring insurance holding company systems, with an emphasis on revenue flow within the system
• State admission/licensing and obtaining surplus lines eligibility/listing for foreign and alien insurers
• Insurance company investment issues and asset/surplus maintenance, including the use of derivative instruments and strategies
• Alternative risk financing mechanisms involving various capital market sources, including exchange-traded and over-the-counter insurance derivatives and insurance securitization
• The use of insurance and surety products as credit enhancement or synthetic financing tranches of complex securitization and other structured finance transactions
• Structuring and documenting synthetic guaranteed investment contracts, funding agreements and other forms of financial and benefit responsive products issued by insurance companies, and the “off balance sheet” securitization thereof
• Structuring and documenting reinsurance treaties and related regulatory issues
• Designing and structuring unique and innovative insurance marketing/distribution systems
• Litigation and alternative dispute resolution with respect to reinsurance
• Taxation of insurance companies and other insurance entities, including U.S. and state income, premium and excise tax issues
• Counseling troubled insurance companies on regulatory and financial issues and representing creditors, reinsurers and corporate parents with respect to insolvent insurers
• State regulatory issues and all matters before state insurance regulatory agencies

Professionals